Used Book Stores in Costa Rica--A Must-Do. Also, Happy Independence Day

Books in Costa Rica:

Costa Rica is not a book culture.  Even the copy centers here blatantly ignore all copyright laws.  Nobody seems to have books in their home (with The Bible being the exception).  This is likely due to the fact that a book here costs anywhere from $10-$40.  It's absolutely absurd.

Fortunately, I've never been one to buy books new anyways.  Proof that a book is worth reading is the fact that it's taken decades of abuse.  I love the smell, taste, and feel of used books.  I don't know why anyone would prefer a new book, especially at four times the price.  With a few tips from my Tica roommate and a general idea of the "academic district" of downtown San Jose, I went book hunting.  This is what I found:

(Entrance of one book store)

(Another photo taken while walking through the shot.  Books are stacked 3 rows deep.)

(Finding a specific book is difficult)

(Especially if the book you're looking for is "up" in storage)

(The owner of this--actually helpful and well-stocked--bookstore with my purchases)

As you can tell from the photos, these bookstores are crazy.  The proprietor takes your "request" and walks you through the store.  From what I can tell the books tend to be grouped in "categories," but if the ghost of Melvil Dewey every passed through Costa Rica there would be a poltergeist.  Some of the books are quite damaged from the storage conditions, and others are impossibly buried.  One of the stores had cats climbing on and scratching the stacks.  It was very sad.

That said, I had an amazing time.  I would love to take my sister (Rebecca) and my grandma (Margi) through this part of San Jose.  The smell of paper will floor you.  The combination of colors, structure, and pathetic visual fallacy (I believe that's the term when your surroundings are a metaphor...?) is incredible.  There is one famous used book store in San Jose that is a 4,000+ sq./ft. historic mansion with every single room filled with used books.  I could spend a week in each store.  Unfortunately, I had to get back to Politecnico (my school).  I bought a few titles and split; a very fun $11 to spend.

1. Mamita Yunai by Carlos Luis Fallas -- A very famous Costa Rican novel about life on a bananal (banana plantation).  Full of Costa Rican history, and of course... Spanish Vocabulary

2. El Libro de los Primeros Auxilios -- Not exactly a book, but more of a public service handout.  It's a "parents and children" friendly first aid instruction packet.  Great for emergency medicine vocabulary, but not exactly a long read.

3. Don Juan Tenorio by Jose Zorrilla -- The famous drama that started the cult of Don Juan, the world's most famous mujeriego.  This should be a difficult read, and it's written as a play, but it's another good way to get more Spanish culture.

4. El Cuerpo Humano Jitan by Rusibeth Oviedo Jimenez -- A small, basic, anatomy coloring book.  I couldn't believe the store owner was able to find something that fit this request.  If only it was bilingual...

Independence Day Parade: 

Today (September 15th) is also Costa Rican Independence Day.  Who knew?  I accidentally slept in and missed the opportunity to head in to San Jose to watch the parade with Politecnico professors, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  Feeling like one of my parents (because low-squats yesterday left me feeling like I had a spring in my step) I walked from my place to downtown Heredia to watch the parade and the masses.  It was impossible to see any part of the parade, as the Ticos were packed twenty deep on both sides.  I finally managed to snake my way through the crowd and cross the parade route to get to the central park.  My brilliance paid off--the lack of buildings and central location made the park a perfect place to go.  There were street vendors and performers, there was a first aid tent, there were food kiosks, and even a big fake train.  It was beautiful.

The best part about the parade (a rather long, mediocre, and small-town affair) was my perch were I sat.  I found a great tree to climb.  The first eight feet of the tree was limb-free, but I was able to wow the Ticos by coming at the tree with a running start and man-handling the thing. I was twenty feet high and loving the view.

After the parade I bought some incredible fruit out of the back of a pick-up truck (and even got a free papaya!).  As dull as I am, there's nothing better than relaxing at home for the evening on Independence Day. Hopefully there will even be fireworks to watch from my balcony later tonight.

Pura Vida,

Z

My First Day with Fundacion Salud Sin Fronteras (FSF)

After a few dozen emails, phone calls, and resume-in-hand inquiries, I finally found a volunteer opportunity in Costa Rica.  I offered myself to everything from sanitation programs to rehab centers, including schools, sustainable farming foundations, palliative care centers, and the government.  Nobody seemed interested.  The few that returned my calls or emails were apologetic, but uninterested in a foreign volunteer.  I was shocked and disappointed with the results I was getting, but I kept applying.

Finally, I heard back from Javier Malca at Fundacion Salud Sin Fronteras (FSF).  In addition to responding to my email with optimism, he asked that I call to set up a meeting.  Within three days I was on my way to Parque Merced in San Jose to meet with Javier and head to one of the clinics.  He no-showed!  I was worried at first, dejected, and finally resolved to find the clinic on my own and see what was going on.  He was not answering his phone or responding to text messages; either something was wrong or FSF was another dead end.

After an adventure with a cab driver, I found my way to the main clinic of FSF.  As it turned out, Javier was called to a medical emergency meeting.  The sub-director, Italo, came to meet me at the clinic and discuss my potential volunteer work with FSF.  Once Italo arrived, everything turned to gold.

Fundacion Salud Sin Fronteras is a non-profit operating in Costa Rica to provide at-cost medications and procedures to the lower socioeconomic strata of the region.  While health care here is only $20/month, that is still economically unfeasible for a number of citizens.  The foundation works with doctors, drug suppliers, the government, and the people of Costa Rica to deliver health care to a greater number of patients.  To date, FSF has seen over a million patients, at 14 clinics, and has provided over $40,000,000 in treatment to aid the Ministry of Public Health here in Costa Rica.

Fundacion Salud Sin Fronteras

I am truly excited to be a part of this organization.  Italo can provide me with (limited) desk space, fairly unlimited shadowing and clinical/surgical volunteer experience, administrative tasks and non-profit development, and an opportunity to be part of a very positive force in the world.  They'll take me 2-3 days a week, on my schedule, for my entire time in Costa Rica.  I think I'll be at one of the clinical sites every Monday and Wednesday.  I may also be helping out with the planning and logistics of a health-relevant music festival happening this summer (January).

My First Day With FSF


Friday was my first day volunteering at FSF.  I picked up a scrub-top and pair of Crocs, and wore them with a pair of khakis for my first day in the office.  It was a very exciting morning.  The doctor showed up at around 8:15am, and by 8:45 I was holding a bite-block in place as the doctor narrated a gastroscopy.  I expected that assisting a GI specialist would have involved a lot more horrible smells, but the procedures were mess-free.  I was also taken aback by the use of versed and the invasive procedures done without more staff, resources, and emergency equipment present.  The treatment seemed top-quality, I just had anxiety about precautionary measures when I compared the FSF clinic to the outpatient surgical practice where I worked in Virginia.

I will certainly be starting a notebook to document everything I do with FSF.  I know that my future with the organization will afford me with a ton of opportunities for participation, observation, and difference-making.  Though I did little more than help groggy patients out of bed and protect the doctors scope from patient's teeth, it was a great learning experience.  In the future I should be present for a wide array of procedures (any time paying voluntourists aren't visiting the clinic), and I should have an impact on a large part of the practice.

My goals are to have the website translated, and to have begun a self-guided review course for a Spanish-English medical interpreter exam by the end of October.  Everything that I am doing here is part of my path to becoming a doctor, and every aspect of my day is moving me forward towards my dreams.  Even though I'm short on close relationships, furniture, art, books, and certain articles of clothing, I have to admit that I am happy.

I'm headed to a used bookstore tomorrow in the hopes of finding some intermediate Spanish literature, some anatomy/first aid textbooks, and maybe a book or two in English for my high schoolers.

Pura Vida,

Z

First Few Days of Classes and Brazilian Independence

I need to get better at posting consistency with this blog.  The problem is that Sunday is the only day here where I really have a chance to catch my breath.  This week was particularly crazy.

Teaching

I am now in full-swing with my two English classes.  The high school class is truly remarkable.  They have turned in some very impressive assignments already (including very artistic postcards written to friends while on vacation, and advertisements for vacation destinations).  Although I have only had the class three times, we've already covered so much.  Most recently, we've started our literature focus.  The entire rest of the course will be taught as a survey of English literature and written media.  I am so pumped about the prospect of teaching English through short stories and selections because I love to read.

Our First story--a personal selection--was All Summer In A Day by Ray Bradbury.  It is a short science fiction story about an elementary school class on Venus.  If you haven't already read the story, I recommend that you do.  The effect the story had on the class was profound, and we (or at least I) had a lot of fun reading it.  We covered terminology such as setting and inference, and highlighted some vocabulary within the text.  Mostly though, we focused on reading for comprehension.  These high school students are truly amazing.  They started studying English only three years ago, and they are now noticing pathetic fallacy and buried metaphors to a degree that they would wow an English teacher in the US.  It must be due to excellent teaching.

We have our first exam next week.  It's going to be a joke of an exam, mostly because I'm expected to test them after only three classes (and this past Saturday was the first day we had the textbook or syllabus).  Test test will be:

1. Day/Time/Date/Condition/Weather
2. Questions and answers about the weather
3. Vocabulary pertaining to vacations/destinations and nature/environmental issues
4. Essays on the reading: setting, action, inference

My class at Politecnico is proving to be a little more difficult.  First, they were fairly neglected compared to the other specialists at the institute.  Over the past academic quarter they have had four different teachers and have fallen eight full weeks behind!  I'm not expected to catch them up fully, but I am expected to cover the material.  The hardest part of the class is going to be to get them back under control and disciplined.  It seems that they're used to setting the pace of the class and goofing around in their L1 (Spanish).  I can't have that if I'm going to get them to learn what they need to learn.

Any advice on managing a classroom of extra-large children would be much-appreciated.

We have covered small towns and big cities, as well as jobs and working conditions.  I am fortunate that the first two weeks for my high school class was out of the textbook I'm using for my G10 language specialist class.  I will likely use the same verbs and grammar topics in both courses.

So far teaching has been excited, exhausting, inspiring, demoralizing, and every other effect one can imagine.  I'm hoping that by the end of next week I'll feel more like a normal teacher.  I begin tutorials this week (paid office hours to help struggling students) which will bring me closer to economic self-sufficiency and allow me a more normal routine.

Brazilian Independence

So, though I'm neither Brazilian nor in Brazil, I celebrated Brazilian Independence Day yesterday.  Some of my new Tico friends (who I met through my orthodontist friend Karina) called me yesterday and invited me to tag along with them to a party.  I worked all day Thursday and Friday, and was entirely draining from my commute and class on Saturday, but I couldn't refuse the invite.  After all, I can sleep Sunday and Monday, and there's always time to sleep when I'm dead.

The event was slightly uncomfortable, but we had a good time.  We talked with some very interesting girls: Brazilians, Portuguese language students, and Ticas who like a good party.  There was typical Brazilian food, Capoeira demonstrations (Brazilian break dance fighting... honest!), Samba and other Brazilian dances, a mariachi band, masked goblins and "giants," as well as an angel sent to mingle and dance.

(From left to right: Wisconsin, Kenneth, an angel from heaven, me, Toni)

It was a great night, though I was very full (from a huge meal I cooked and ate right before they called me) and exhausted (from a crazy week).  I think sometime in the next few weeks I'll convince the guys (Kenneth, Toni, and Wisconsin) to go out with me in Heredia and crash at my place.  Regardless, I'm started to feel a little more linked in.

Pura Vida,

Z

Kittens on our front porch

The title really says it all.  My Tica roommate Ariana (a self-acknowledged hippie) saw a young pregnant street cat and decided to give it a safe place to have her litter.  She put out some food for the fat little cat, made a nest of the sorts out of cardboard boxes and ripped newspaper, and made sure her own cat (a male cat that looks more like a small tiger) was kept out of the area.  Less than a week after Ariana started showing this cat kindness, we had five little kittens calling from the garage.

I'm not a fan of cats, and I really don't like large pets in general (save Ernie, my awesome dog from college).  Still, I have to admit that this little kittens are growing on me.  It's fun to lay out in the hammock and watch them crawl around.  They can't see yet--something to do with their eyes not being able to open--so they stumble around and use smell (poorly) to find their mom.  She seems pretty bewildered; Ariana says the mother is still pretty young herself, but she's figuring it out.

I don't envy the young mother, but it'll be fun to have kittens crawling around our garage for the next few weeks.  We've already found a vet that will neuter the mother and give away the kittens.

Here are some photos of the rascals on their first day:

(the match stick and shoe for size-comparison was entirely accidental)

Don't you feel all warm and fuzzy?

Pura Vida,

-Z

First Day Teaching My New Class

Though I've been in Costa Rica nearly six weeks, a majority of those six weeks were spend taking the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) course through the Center For Teacher Development (CFTD) and sitting the Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT).  In the course I taught a few classes as part of my training, and during the past two weeks I have taught some tutorios (class make-up tutoring).  However, my (own) technical English classes will be starting next week, and my high school Saturday morning program started yesterday!




I was so nervous I left my place at 5:30AM to be sure I was on time (I sat outside the classroom for nearly an hour, which didn't help my anxiety).  Fortunately, I managed to get from Heredia (where I live) to Alajuela (where the high school is, and unfortunately about 25 kilometers away) in less than an hour and a half.  I think I'll leave at around 6:10AM next week; that's still pretty early for a Saturday morning.


The Class


The students are absolutely wonderful, which makes up for the entire lack of media in the classroom.  There weren't even white board pens or erasers.  It was by some miracle that I bought dry-erase pens and had them in my pencil case (everyone in Costa Rica uses pencil cases... and fanny packs).


Though every student save one showed up exactly 10 minutes late (Tico time), they were entirely engaged from 8AM-noon.  I nearly forgot about their break in the middle of the class, and not a single student reminded me.  My other teachers were right about the high school students; their brains are like wet sponges. They were forming greater understanding as I watched.


The Bad




In addition to having neither markers, erasers, projectors, electronics, or A/C, I had created a lesson plan for the wrong section, in the wrong book.  Fortunately, I had time to scramble (while we did introductions and discussed what the students learned during their last English block (with a fellow Politecnico professor).  I quickly flipped through one of the students' textbooks as soon as the panic wore off.  There was a section in their textbook called "Our Planet" which corresponded pretty well to my lesson planned around "Experiencing Nature and Talking about the Environment."  Saved!  I wasn't able to do the same grammar focus or activities from the book, but I was able to use many of my other activities.


Highlights of my first day with my own class

• I realize I can be as goofy as I want (and I think it helps increase motivation and decrease negative affect/anxiety) because nobody that knows me is watching.
• The incredible attitude, understanding, and maturity of my little high schoolers.
• THEY'RE LITTLE.  I know that if I was teaching high school seniors in the US there would be more than a few of them towering over me.  My students are anywhere from 5 foot 6 to about 4 feet tall.  It was in no way confusing who was the teacher.  In the future I can shave before class.
• The expression "fake it 'til you make it" really does hold up.  I had students out of their seats at the end of class because they were so engaged, and many did the typical Tico move of thanking me afterwards.
• TWO ACTIVITIES in particular:
• In order to create our symantic map on nature (Symantic map = web of related words around a common theme) I broke the class into three groups and gave them 5 minutes to make lists of words pertaining to the topic.  Then I called up a representatives from each team to read off their lists one at a time.  The awesome part: I had them compete "Boggle Style" with their lists.  I strongly suggest this activity; I think I'll add it to Politecnico's "Resource Library" (in quotes because their currently isn't anything in the library).
• One of the things we're supposed to incorporate into every class is an opportunity for extended speech production.  Our goal is also to maximize student talk time.  To do this, I gave each group of students a jar of play-dough and the instructions "I was out (somewhere in nature), when I found a (make something out of your play-dough)."  As a group, the students were to make an object, describe how they found it in the forest/ocean/beach/sky/desert/snow, and what happened next.  I asked them to use the class discussion as inspiration, and the result was hilarious.  One group told a story about killing a spider in a cave (very artistic spider), another found a ukulele-playing alien in the forest, another was abducted by an alien, and the fourth found a skeleton sun-tanning on the beach.  Everyone had a lot of fun, and I am confident the students learned something.

Moving Forward

I'm going to search Politecnico to find the right book and secure myself a copy.  It is really hard to teach grammar and writing, on the fly, as a new professor.  I definitely need to focus on grammar and other quantifiable aspects of language moving forward.

I spend the last five minutes of class getting feedback from the students about the current class and what they'd like to see more off in the future.  The responses shocked me.  The students candidly admitted that they needed more work on pronunciation and grammar, though they also acknowledged (correctly) that they always want more vocabulary.  Another thing that surprised me was how they all understood the importance of language production and requested that we do more presentations.  They rock!

As crazy as it sounds, I may request to continue teaching high school classes after this rotation.  They meet Saturday morning, but down here in Costa Rica I'm not really crazy about staying out late or drinking.  The buses even stop picking people up after a certain hour.

So much has happened--Time to catch up

I'll start this entry off with an apology (mostly to myself, as I'm writing this blog for myself).  The past two weeks have been very busy, and I'm still dealing with a bit of transplant shock.  That said, I've had time to blog and just didn't.  Here's what I've done:


Karina's Birthday Party:


Karina, Lalo, and I drove out to a fancy discoteca to meet up with some of their other friends to celebrate Karina's birthday. She turned twenty-something again, we had a few non-Tico beers (the Costa Rican beer is really bad, and not much cheaper).  We stayed until around 2am, and thanks to my up-at-6am schedule, the physical lifestyle here, and the fact that people actually dance here, I was so exhausted I was falling asleep.  It was great seeing Lalo and Karina, and going out with some Ticos for a night on the town.


Tamara's Birthday Party:

Two birthday parties in one weekend.  Can life get any better? I submit that it cannot.

Tamara, Tia Flori's granddaughter, had her birthday party this weekend.  And, shockingly, she was spot-on with her invitation list.  There were at least a hundred people at the party, as well as horses, dogs, cats, birds, and even a donkey.  The family had rented a very nice finca outside of San Jose with the option of swimming, playing soccer, having a barbeque, socializing, and lounging by the bar.  As promised, there was a clown (a very bad clown I might add), a ton of great Tico food, and more relatives than most Americans could imagine.

I played soccer, took a wonderful soak in the pool, filled up on chorizo, carne de res, gallo pinto, arroz con vegetales, unos hotdogs con queso, and a very bizarre dessert best described as marshmallows dipped in colored, condensed milk.  Marcos and I (after tearing it up on the soccer pitch), fled the party as soon as the sky started to fall (and the clown started to bomb).  Still, it was one of the best days I've had here in the rich coast.

TEFL Certification


I am now officially certified (and also licensed) to teach English here in Costa Rica.  My report card was good enough (all top marks or near enough to be considered presentable), which I am proud of given my limited experience and knowledge of teaching or studying the English language.  I should also point out that I scored in the top band in every single section of the Cambridge Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT), a test used by Costa Rica and many other countries as a means of qualifying, evaluating, and categorizing English language instructors.  There wasn't much to study for the exam, as I felt confident in nearly every section after taking a practice test a few days before sitting the exam.  While we were allowed a full day to prepare for the test, and the test itself is nearly four hours, much of the time allotted wasn't necessary.  If you take a TEFL course from a reputable and achievement-oriented teacher training institute, you should have no trouble scoring top marks on your TKT.  Moreover, your performance is considered "acceptable" if you score in either of the top two bands in every section. No sweat, mae.


Going out with the teachers

After finishing the TEFL course, it seemed like the perfect thing to do was get together with the other students/teachers and eat, drink, and relax.  Our instructor (Sara) hosted us at her new apartment (it seems we're all relatively new to Costa Rica).  I brought Karina (she took me out with her friends and let me use my Spanish, I felt like it was only fair to bring her to an English-dominated affair).  Karina and I brought some drinks and a pack-load of delicious cheese or cheese and meat rice-filled tacos.  Because of their awesome size and deliciousness, we started calling them pocket tacos.

The potluck was delicious and interesting, the students, administrators, and teachers in attendance were all interesting, and the mood was light.  It was a great way to end our TEFL training experience.  I hope to see my classmates and instructors (and their boyfriends/girlfriends/fiancées) again soon.

I think the highlight of the night for me was heading to the only open bar within walking distance and finding it full of beautiful, interesting, happening Ticos.  There was no cover, everything was affordable, and there was an open pool table when we arrived.  We played 9-ball, cutthroat, 8-ball, and had a great time getting to known each other in a more relaxed setting. Deli's guy Justin was a ton of fun, though I imagine his night started to drag when he had to (with limited Spanish) get himself and Deli home at 3am.

The highlight for a large group of bar-goers was certainly shocking the Gringos.  Little did we know, we'd happened upon a bar full of lesbians.  I have to tip my hat to Costa Rica.  In a part of the world dominated by Catholic decrees, Machismo attitude, and homophobia, Costa Rica seems to be a gay-friendly zone.  Female-female couples were making out and dancing throughout the bar.  Surprisingly, I think it made us more comfortable.  Our group was mostly girls, and they had no problems dancing together Tico style.

Deli's highlight must have come the next morning, when she woke up with a grand wine hangover and discovered delicious pocket-tacos in her purse.  Some people thought we were joking, but Justin and I were all about the concept of pocketing the tacos and snaking on them throughout the night.  Brilliant.  Thank you Karina for making them.  It was super-cool that I showed up at your place to head to Sara's and you were putting the finishing touches on something delicious to share.


Moving to Heredia

While my homestay was a great and memorable experience, it was more than time to move out.  I left the Monday evening after the end of my TEFL certification.  It is miserable to not have all of your creature comforts when living temporarily in a foreign country, but moving is a hell of a lot easier.  I hailed a taxi and negotiated an $18 fare (I was worried about keeping all of my stuff with me and getting between bus stops, not to mention the cost of the taxis on both ends of the trip).  I feel the price was right, and I was able to get from San Jose to my new place in Heredia in less than 40 minutes.

My new place is perfect.  I have a beautiful, large, hardwood room.  The floor, ceiling, door, and floor-to-ceiling dressers are all solid wood, as are the stairs and everything else on the second floor.  The entire second floor is mine, as my two roommates (Ariana and Reyna) live downstairs.  There is a full bathroom on the second floor (with pretty good water pressure and heat), a landing large enough for a full-sized futon pad, and most notably a beautiful open terrace with two wood/leather rocking chairs.  The terrace is a beautiful beige/orange, and has a beautiful corner panorama of downtown San Jose.

(My bedroom.  Ignore the TV/electronics, those belong to the previous Gringo roommate who's moving out because his Golden Retriever puppy is too big for the place.  Note the fact that I'm sleeping on a Tico mattress on the floor.  It almost makes me miss my children's loft back home.)

We have a (functional) kitchen, a nice dining room table, some wooden furniture with cushions towards the entrance of the house, a downstairs bathroom, a laundry room with a Tico washing machine, a square, cement "backyard," and a wonderful corner lot that allows for a fenced-in garden, enough parking for four Tico cars and plenty of motos, and a Super less than 100 yards away for any grocery needs.

The best part about living here in Heredia may be...

...the modestly cooler weather compared to San Jose...

...one of the largest Universities in Costa Rica as a center of the culture of the city (and a quarter-mile from my house)...

...the fact that the average person you meet in Heredia is down to Earth, well educated, incredibly accepting, and eco-conscious...

...I'm still only a 30 minute bus ride from San Jose centro and a $2-3 bus ride to both coasts...

...my roommates and a quarter of the inhabitants of Heredia are musicians.  In fact, the central parque here in Heredia has a music temple.  Very cool...

...from my new house I can walk to/from a supermarket that sells everything I could need, downtown Heredia, a beautiful coffee plantation, buses directly to San Jose and directly to Politenico (assuming I work there)...

...rent is affordable ($200/month) as are utilities...

...having two roommates who are happy to show me the ropes and teach me how to cook and do laundry for myself the Tico way...

...we have two hammocks already.  One is hung in our wrought-iron garage near my new garden, I am looking into getting the other one hung on the second floor...

That's all I have energy for tonight.  I have interviews for teaching positions tomorrow.  Wish me luck; I'm hoping at least one of them is nothing more than a formality.

Warmest Regards and Pura Vida,

Zach

A Weekend In Puntarenas

With everyone here in Costa Rica taking the day off on Monday for La Negrita (La Virgen de Los Angeles), we students had a three-day weekend.  I took the opportunity to head to the beach.  Though teachers and students in my program warned me that Puntarenas was ugly, passed over, and nothing like what it was a decade ago, I decided to head there all the same.  The way I saw it, Puntarenas was a three hour (four dollar!) bus ride away, and the easiest place to go without making plans.

I loved the point, and I loved the beach.  I would highly recommend Puntarenas to any traveler looking for:

      1. A budget adventure
      2. A relatively gringo-free zone
      3. A beach and a pair of piers full of Ticos doing what Ticos like to do.

Highlights of my trip:

-Arriving in a thunderstorm, persevering through three "hostels" to find one for under $10/night with a private room, and then immediately ditching my stuff and running for an hour and a half on the beach, all the while being blown around by gale winds and doused with torrential rain.

-Eating ceviche and saltines after that first run and realizing that, if you're hungry enough, ceviche is a delicious dish of diced fish steak cooked in lemon juice.  Of course, you could also say that ceviche is raw seafood served in an acrid juice...

-Going to the aquarium/rehabilitation center and seeing a number of pelicans not-fit-to-fly living out their days in comfort, realizing that the pelican that I saw flirting with death while running the night before was likely in this group.*

-Failing to order the correct dessert and having a pink, cola flavored shaved ice/chocolate and vanilla ice cream/vanilla syrup/dry condensed milk sundae at a Dos Pinos.  It was one of the best, albeit weirdest, things I have tasted while traveling.

-Reading, writing, and thinking in my chest-like room in the hostel while propping my legs and head up against the walls and watching geckos scurry across the roof.


*While I know this Seaquarium supports conservation efforts in the region, it is not worth your time or money.  I was offended that they recently doubled the price, for foreigners only.  Moreover, there is not much to see or do in the park.  I am an ecology enthusiast and I could only pass 45 minutes inside the park.
One exception: If you're traveling with children under the age of 12, there is a pool, tons of things to climb on, photo ops, and other children-oriented activities.  Also, children under 12 are free.

And with that I'm off to bed.  The trip was wonderful but exhausting, and I'm catching up on sleep and TESOL studies.  This next week I'll be: Finding an apartment/room in San Jose, taking care of getting my funds to Costa Rica (it's been a bear), and attempting to drop in on the apartment of someone else from Politecnico for a birthday part.  My thoughts are fading and I'm ready for sleep.

Pura Vida,

Z

A Tico haircut, and a beautiful day in San Jose

So... Marco (my host brother, the smooth Tico pilot) and I ran some errands on Friday.  While we were in Alajuela I had him show me where he gets his hair done.  The place was incredible.  It’s a barber shop the size of a soccer goal, run by one old barber who exudes a sense of experience and authenticity.  There was a sign (made of paper) stating the price per haircut.  Fourteen hundred Colones.  The conversion is 515 Colones to the dollar; that’s less than three dollars! 

I simply sat down and told the barber that I wanted to be Puro Tico, or as they say here in Costa Rica, “Mas Tico que Galla Pinto.”  Roughly translated, that means more Costa Rican than beans and rice.   I ended up getting a nice clean haircut, with some volume left on the top to gel like a Latino.  And it worked.  I’ve had multiple Ticos ask me directions already.

I’ve attached some pictures of me hanging around the house with my host family.  One of the photos is of Marco, Marta (my mom-away-from-mom), and Tami, an extremely annoying and prissy house dog that we’re watching for the next few days.

Today (Saturday) was the most beautiful day so far in San Jose.  It was sunny, breezy, and just the perfect day to sightsee.  Our little group explored San Jose together, and then went on a tour of the national museum of Costa Rica.  Only three of us decided to take advantage of this optional experienced offered through the Center For Teacher Development (CTFD), making the experience very personal. 

I found the diverse ethnic origin of Costa Rica fascinating, as well as Las Esferas (the spheres).  These giant balls made of volcanic rock really stand out against nature.  While a sphere is a very organic shape, there is nothing natural about a chiseled volcanic ball sitting in a field.  Many anthropologists have attempted to explain these forms.  Some claim that they were likely used to mark property boundaries, others claim that they’re astrological interpretations.  The more extreme explanations of these balls suggest extraterrestrial influence.  Feel free to check out more about these balls [HERE].

Tonight was pretty calm.  I visited a new friend down the street and talked health care and language learning.  Surprisingly, I’m exhausted.  That seems to be a regular thing for me; I’m becoming an old soul.  I rarely stay up long enough to eat dinner.  I’m happy though.  At least I will be when I find a volunteer position in the community…

Pura Vida,

Z

The Buses Aren't So Bad

After that last post I took a nice cold shower and passed out with my legs tingling from an exhausting first day of classes.  This morning I attacked my commute with the kind of focus I usually reserve for academic testing, and it helped a great deal.  Here is my commute:

(1) from the corner in right next to my house to the bus center in ALAJUELA:

(by BUS: 5 minutes, 50 cents)

walking: 15 Minutes

(2) from the bust station in ALAJUELA to the stop in front of the SUBWAY on the SAN JOSE DIRECTO:

30 minutes, 90 cents

(3) walk from SUBWAY to PARQUE LA AUXILIADORA: 4 minutes

wait at 

(4) 0-10 minute wait at LA AUXILIADORA for the BUS to MULTIPLAZA

(5) BUS to MULTIPLAZA: 15 minutes, 60 cents

My morning commute, done alone, was an hour and twenty minutes, and cost around $1.50.  Not terrible.  Moreover, I was exponentially more comfortable with the trip.  I should be able to read or listen to music on the morning trip in just a few days.

I am still a bit worried about doing the trip backwards, but I went over the names of the buses and the routes with my host father Marcos this morning over a hearty American breakfast (Raisin Bran with a delicious sliced banana).  The traffic is also worse in the evening, but I imagine without all the mistakes I made yesterday (at least four), I should be able to make it home in under an hour and forty-five minutes.  That is, if I haul out of here immediately after class.

In other good news, my cell phone chip will be waiting for me when I get back to the house!  I will not be so alone when commuting.  And with that, class is starting...

Pura Vida,

Z

(This is a photo I found online that surprisingly resembles most of the buses through San Jose.  There are a couple of old school buses servicing some of the more distant and poorer outlying areas, but a majority of the buses are red/white/blue/gray manual transmission touring buses like the one in the photo.)

CTFD—Center For Teacher Development

It’s 7:30PM and I just got back from my first day of class at the Center For Teacher Development.  What an experience.  Everything here is so new, foreign, confusing, and unaccommodating.  The school, however, is very nice.  Since it was the cheapest program I found anywhere, I expected it to be terrible.  Incredibly, it's as nice as I could have imagined.  Furthermore, the other participants I spoke to had nothing but wonderful things to say about schooling, employment, and "life support" from the school.

Marcela is a wonderful, Wake Forest educated, over obliging, and very amiable mother of three.  The school that she runs is a recent outgrowth of La Escuela Tecnica, created due to a demand for TESOL certified teachers.  My instructor is also delightful.  She has a masters in language (not sure which focus, specifically, though I believe something to do with language acquisition).  The two were both present at the start and end of classes.

We started at 9AM and finished at 4PM, with a one hour break for lunch.  My other classmates (that I’ve met so far) are Sam, a UVA grad who has been teaching English in Costa Rica for nearly a year, and Allison, a woman who moved here three weeks ago (I believe) to follow a Tico boyfriend and to embrace and observe the social and political statements of Costa Rica.  Allison has a masters in Teaching communication to students with special needs (if I remember correctly).  She worked for a number of years in the Prince Georges County school system, of all places.

Though the security and reception at the HSBC building (where the CFTD office is) are completely useless (none of them knew where the CTFD office was, or showed any signs of life when I asked them about a TESOL school, one tried to hail me a cab), the building is beautiful inside.  Classes are engaging, practical, and well-run.  The instructors are qualified, the building and classroom are both very nice, and there is even snacks and coffee available via intercom.  Very classy.

Now for the horrors of my day:

My classmates and instructor proceeded to scare the hell out of me about everything in San Jose: pick pockets, thieves on the raised walkways, robberies at knifepoint, grand schemes to get you alone, violence for a cell phone, etc.  All of this before I head back home alone, on a two hour commute, half of which was in the dark.  I got lost.

The single, worst thing about San Jose is transportation.  It takes about an hour and a half to get to school, and two hours to get home.  I am scared to nap, read, or do nearly anything because I may miss my stop.  The traffic is horrible.  Every street looks identical in the surrounding area.  It’s dangerous to ask for directions because you’re demonstrating that you are 1) A gringo 2) Lost, and 3) Stupid.

I wish I had photos to show you of the buses, the sketchy alleyways, the guys who look like dirty pirates, and the total lack of order on the road ways.  I was too busy concentrating on not getting mugged to pull out my sweet camera that was in my backpack with my laptop and wallet.

Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of nice, clean, well-lit places in Costa Rica and around San Jose.  Moreover most gringos and wealthy ticos can entirely avoid the bad areas.  Still, many parts of San Jose are worse than Baltimore.

There are no street addresses or road names in Costa Rica.  I’m serious.  You have to buy something like a P.O. box to receive mail.  How a modern country has managed without road names is beyond me.  There are addresses on some of the houses in our neighborhood here, but they are simply decorative; I’m going to lose my mind.

Hopefully I will get my daily commute time down to under four hours, and I will get comfortable enough to read while on the bus.  I’ve started reading Mount Misery, the discovering of an elixir by the main character of House of God.  I’m so engaged, I may just read for a few minutes before passing out tonight.  Also, I should be able to read on my way in to class tomorrow; the first bus ride (approx. 45 minutes) is to the central interchange in San Jose, so I can’t miss my stop.  Maybe after the first week or two I’ll be able to read on my way home.

12 frantic hours in San Jose and I’m sufficiently exhausted.  I plan to write a more complete evaluation of my TESOL course with CFTD once I complete my licensing.  I also plan on doing some research on the bus system/urban planning/postal system of Costa Rica when I’m not already so disappointed by the region.  My Kingdom for one capable civil engineer!

Pura Vida, though the return trip today was scary (even for an egoist like me with tons of travel experience),

Z

The Extended Family—Visiting Tia Flori

My Saturday night was fairly calm, as I was exhausted and asked to get home somewhat early.  There was a game to be watched (the local Costa Rican Team of Alajuela was premiering their team and playing their season-opener).  We did, however, drop in on Tia Flori and her wonderful little family before heading home for the night.

Tia Flori is a wonderful woman, and her house is beautifully open and earthy.  They have a pair of parakeets (called paraqeets de amor), a beautiful porch table complete with chairs and umbrella in their den, and translucent roofing that lets you hear and feel the weather outside.  Thanks to the perfect, albeit damp, climate of Costa Rica the house doesn’t need to be insulated.  So much so that when I arrived there was a baby bird that had fallen through a layering in the roofing and was chirping from the floor.

Tia Flori has three children, two sons and a daughter.  I was fortunate enough to meet her daughter Karla, her daughter-in-law Sharon, and her granddaughter (Sharon’s daughter) Tamara.  When we arrived Karla and Tamara were tending to the baby bird that had fallen into their den.  They had a small birdcage and a bowl of water for the poor thing.  It was precious.

Tamara was absolutely adorable, but nullified everything I’ve heard about learning Spanish from children.  She’s at the beautiful age where fiction and reality blend seamlessly.  She was telling me about who was invited to her birthday party, and aside from me and the other people in the room it was mostly animals… “los gatos, los caballos, los pajaros.”  If I didn’t know better I could have been very confused.  She also told me she was turning five, and held up three fingers.  I guess the Tamara would rather be turning five; fingers don’t lie.

Tia Flori served us Coffee con leche, a delicious cake, unos pastelitos, and enchiladas.  Everything was warm, and the coffee was hot.  I really enjoyed joking around with the family.

Rebekah, Marco’s sister (and mine by adoption), taught me some elementary language jokes.  It was through Rebekah that Marcela found my host family.  Marcela is her English teacher at work.  She and her husband Richard have been charming, and have the most beautiful home.  It was wonderful to have them at Tia Floras as well.

One of the jokes that Rebekah taught me:

Q: “How do you say queque en Español.”  (Dad: queque means cake in Spanish)

A: “WhatWhat.” (Dad: que is Spanish for what)

And with that I'm off to pack a bag and prepare for tomorrow.  It's my first day of TESOL class, and I'm hoping to impress my profesora Marcela.

Pura Vida,

-Z

Waving Flag

Just got back from my morning walk (with my host father Marcos) and brief exercises in the park across the street, and felt a huge desire to listen to this song:

WAVING FLAG--English and Spanish Version

David Bisbal—Waving Flag

(featuring K'naan)

ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh (x2)
Give me freedom
Give me fire
Give me reason
Take me higher
See the champions
Take the field now
You define us
Make us feel proud
En las calles muchas manos
levantadas, celebrando
una fiesta sin descanso
los paises como hermanos
Canta y une tu voz
grita fuerte que te escuche el sol
el partido ya va a comenzar
todos juntos vamos a ganar
Unidos!
Seremos grandes,
seremos fuertes
somos un pueblo
bandera de libertad
que viene y que va 
que viene y que va
que viene y que... 
When I get older
I will be stronger
they’ll call me freedom
just like a waving flag
so wave your flag
Now wave your flag
Now wave your flag 
Now wave your flag (x4)
ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh (x2)
Danos vida
danos fuego
que nos lleve a lo alto
campeones o vencidos
pero unidos a intentarlo
In the streets
our heads out lifting
as we lose our inhibitions
celebration is around us
every nation all around us
Singing forever young
singing songs underneath the sun
let’s rejoice to the beautiful game
and together at the end of day
We all sing:
Seremos grandes,
seremos fuertes
somos un pueblo
bandera de libertad
que viene y que va 
que viene y que va 
que viene y que va 
que viene y que...
When I get older
I will be stronger
they’ll call me freedom
just like a wavin flag
so wave your flag 
Now wave your flag 
Now wave your flag
Now wave your flag (x4)
ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh (x2)
¡Unidos!
Seremos grandes,
seremos fuertes
somos un pueblo
bandera de libertad

When I get older
I will be stronger
they’ll call me freedom
just like a waving flag
so wave your flag
Now wave your flag
Now wave your flag
*Now wave your flag (x4)
ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh (x2)
And everybody
will be singing…
ohhh ohhh ohhh ohhh
And we all will be singing...

I love it.  Can’t get enough of it.  The song captures so much of the emotion of the World Cup felt throughout the world.  I especially like this version (with Spanish) because I can understand the lyrics.  I might just sing this song at Karaoke when I go with my host family.

Thanks to www.sweetlyrics.com for these lyrics.  It is a great resource for lyrics of international songs.